Something Beautiful

Someone whose actions are unkind . . .

Someone in my life has been causing me a lot of pain for the last week or so.  There is no real reason for his cruelty.  I have acted kindly, and even generously, toward him on scores of occasions.  I know that I have done nothing to deserve the mean way in which he presently behaves.   It has seemed to me that he acts as he does now just for the sake of causing pain.   In a world in which he controls little, perhaps it makes him feel more powerful to know he can act cruelly.   

Last night I found this quotation at the Blue Cliff Monastery site --

Someone whose actions are unkind, whose thoughts are unwholesome, whose speech is unwholesome, is certainly suffering a lot. When you look deeply and see this suffering, your heart will open and the key of understanding will reveal itself.

-- Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

So, as I deal with the pain he is causing me, I try to remember that his actions are prompted by his own pain.   (If only I could interrupt this cycle.   But he is determined that he shall continue on his present course, no matter how destructive it is to himself (and it is), and no matter how unfair to me.)

Meditation timer

If you ever meditate, in any form whatever, you will want to know about the Berkeley meditation timer.

The prize divides us

I wish I could learn to remember this, to make it really part of me (translated by Thomas Merton) --

When an archer is shooting for nothing 
  He has all his skill.
  If he shoots for a brass buckle
  He is already nervous.
  If he shoots for a prize of gold
  He goes blind
  Or sees two targets--
  He is out of his mind!

    His skill has not changed.  But the prize
  Divides him.  He cares.
  He thinks more of winning
  Than of shooting--
  And the need to win
  Drains him of power.

 

In a similar vein --

No use fretting over gold, beauty or fame;
Nurturing these, how can we calm
Our fluttering heart?

Non attachment brings deep truth,
And a truthful nature brings immortality.

Empty your heart,
Sit quietly on a mat.

In meditation we become one with All;
Tao billows like the vapors
In a mountain valley,
And its supernatural power wafts into our soul.

-- Loy Ching-Yuen (1873-1960)

Contemplative Practices

The Tree of Contemplative Practices.

Write one thing

Terrific advice - for writers and for everyone - at Write to Done. This is a site I want to spend some time at and get to know better!

His green eyes

South and north, sharing
A single mountain gate,
Above and below, two temples
Both named T’ien-chu.

Dwelling therein is
An old dharma master,
Built tall and skinny
Like a stork or swan.

I do not know what
Practice he engages in,
But his green eyes
Reflect the mountain valleys.

Just looking into them
Makes one feel fresh and pure,
As if all one’s baneful vexations had been cleansed.

-- Su Shih   (1073)

Something to remember

Wherever we are, no matter what we doing, we can feel the awareness of the Rigden –  basic goodness, beginninglessness, and endless freedom.

Our basic goodness is not created by hope coming true, nor is it deflated when fear raises its head. It does not depend on externals. It doesn’t wax or wane from one moment to the next. With this impartial mind, we can practice compassion and wisdom freely.     

-- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Ruling Your World

The Ten Precepts

I don't know what the status of these Ten Precepts is, but I like them.

This fleeting world

From the Daily Zen site --

The vagaries of life
Though painful,
Teach us
Not to cling
To this fleeting world.

-- Ikkyu (1394-1481)

A Zen Dominican?

I enjoy Nancy N.'s Just Thinking site and try to check in there regularly.    Today I found a prayer there by St Thomas Aquinas.  The first lines of it struck me as having a very Zen-like spirit --

Grant, Lord my God, that I may never fall away in success or in failure; that I may not be prideful in prosperity nor dejected in adversity. . . .

.